Don’t Know

Jan 21, 2023 | Dave's Don'ts, General, philosophy

Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, author of The Goal, would tell his students and colleagues to never say “I know”.  I completely agree with this sentiment.  Let’s explore this a bit. Let’s start with the arrogance.  When someone is trying to tell me something, and I say, “I...

Don’t Just Do It

Nov 6, 2022 | philosophy

Yeah, I know.  The “just do it” mantra is thrown at us constantly.  I was just at a conference where this was the header of a slide in a presentation.  I get it, having a bias for action is good, but in my experience “just do it” is typically followed by “do it again”...

Don’t Set Priorities

Oct 29, 2022 | Dave's Don'ts, philosophy

Have you ever been told that you need rethink your priorities?  That can be good advice, but I will add this twist:  you can only have one.  The plural form of priority was invented in the 1900s and the term “priorities” didn’t really show up in print until around the...

Don’t Manage

Sep 30, 2022 | Dave's Don'ts, philosophy

I’ve never liked the title of Manager.  Because Managers, well, manage.  I don’t like to manage, and I don’t like to be managed.  To me, manage means “to scrape by” or “make do”.  This sounds very similar to “do more with less” that I spoke negatively about in my last...

Don’t Do More with Less

Sep 7, 2022 | Dave's Don'ts, philosophy

Have you ever been told that you need to “do more with less”? I have.  And I think this has become more prevalent during the COVID pandemic where many organizations continue to be short staffed.  But honestly, this was always a thing.  Companies have always had...

Don’t Make Them Feel Needed

Aug 17, 2022 | Dave's Don'ts, philosophy

I just finished a book titled The Capitalist Philosophers by Andrea Gabor.  One chapter focused on Elton Mayo who the author (partially) attributed the invention of corporate “human relations”.  This was a great contrast to the very popular “scientific management”...